History audiobooks

The Oregon Trail - Abridged

By: Francis Parkman

Narrated by: Frank Muller

Length: 6 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Francis Parkman's journal—written more than 150 years ago in 1846—provides an eye-witness account of one of the grandest adventures in American history. At age twenty-three, the Harvard-educated Bostonian traveled the Rocky Mountains, living among the Dakota Sioux. In his journal, he captured the color, spirit, and perspective of his era, as... Read more

A Good Life - Abridged

By: Ben Bradlee

Narrated by: Ben Bradlee

Length: 4 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The classic New York Times bestselling memoir by legendary Executive Editor of The Washington Post Ben Bradlee—with a new foreword by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and an afterword by Sally Quinn.

The most important, glamorous, and famous newspaperman of modern times traces his path from Harvard to the battles of the South Pacific to the... Read more

Dark Sun - Abridged

By: Richard Rhodes

Narrated by: Richard Rhodes

Length: 6 hours

Abridged: Yes

Here, for the first time, in a brilliant, panoramic portrait by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, is the definitive, often shocking story of the politics and the science behind the development of the hydrogen bomb and the birth of the Cold War.

Based on secret files in the United States and the former Soviet... Read more

No Ordinary Time - Abridged

By: Doris Kearns Goodwin

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize–winning classic about the relationship between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and how it shaped the nation while steering it through the Great Depression and the outset of World War II.

With an extraordinary collection of details, Goodwin masterfully weaves together a striking number of story... Read more

Iron Rose - Abridged

By: Cindy Adams & Susan Crimp

Narrated by: Cindy Adams

Length: 3 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Iron Rose takes an intimate look at the incredible life of Rose Kennedy—head of the Kennedy dynasty and one of the 20th century's most influential women—and her nine famous children. A riveting account of the power behind America's political throne for several decades, Iron Rose reveals the secrets behind the triumphs and tragedies of the... Read more

A Picture Book of Anne Frank

By: David Adler

Narrated by: Randye Kaye

Length: 14 minutes

Abridged: No

"The narrator, reading with clarity and precision, tells the well-known story of the Jewish girl and her family who hid during the Holocaust...[This] high-quality read-along...[is] excellent for school and public libraries." - Booklist Read more

The Influence of Seapower Upon History

By: Alfred T. Mahan

Narrated by: Jonathan Reese

Length: 20 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

First published almost a century ago, this classic text on the history and tactics of naval warfare had a profound effect on the imperial policies of all the major powers. Kaiser Wilhelm is said to have "devoured" this book, and it was avidly read by presidents (including both Roosevelts), kings, prime ministers, admirals, and chancellors.

... Read more

The Voyage of the Beagle

By: Charles Darwin

Narrated by: David Case

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

In 1831, Charles Darwin embarked on an expedition that, in his own words, determined my whole career. The Voyage of the Beagle chronicles his five-year journey around the world and especially the coastal waters of South America as a naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. While traveling through these unexplored countries collecting specimens, Darwin... Read more

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots - Abridged

By: Alexandre Dumas

Narrated by: Julie Christie

Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Regal and dazzlingly beautiful, Mary Stuart succumbed to the irresistible impulses of passion, gambling away her throne for love. In a deadly game of power against her envious cousin, Elizabeth I, she stopped at nothing: Unbelievable acts of abduction, rape, and even murder were performed at her behest. Often misunderstood yet also revered, she... Read more

Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains - Abridged

By: Charles Eastman

Narrated by: Lorenzo Baca

Length: 2 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: Yes

From the pen of a Santee Sioux— Charles Eastman— come these biographical portraits of American Indian leaders Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Chief Joseph. Eastman was born in Red Falls, Minnesota, and raised by his grandmother and uncle in Manitoba, Canada, where he learned Native American... Read more

The Glory and the Dream

By: William Manchester

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 57 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

This great time capsule of a book captures the abundant popular history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It encompasses politics, military history, economics, the arts, science, fashion, fads, social change, sexual mores, communications, graffiti—everything and anything indigenous that can be captured in print.Masterfully compressing four... Read more

D-Day - Abridged

By: Stephen E. Ambrose

Narrated by: Stephen E. Ambrose

Length: 5 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Stephen E. Ambrose’s D-Day is the definitive history of World War II’s most pivotal battle, a day that changed the course of history.

D-Day is the epic story of men at the most demanding moment of their lives, when the horrors, complexities, and triumphs of life are laid bare. Distinguished historian Stephen E. Ambrose portrays the faces of... Read more

The Kingdom

By: Robert Lacey

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 22 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

The Kingdom is the story of a country—a country of astonishing contrasts, where routine computer printouts open with the words “In the name of God,” where men who grew up in goat-hair tents now dominate the money markets of the world, and where murderers and adulterers are publicly executed in the street. By its own reckoning, this country is... Read more

Meeting of Minds

By: Steve Allen

Narrated by: Steve Allen

Length: 1 hour 58 minutes

Abridged: No

By “ assembling” some of the most fascinating figures in world history, Meeting of Minds provided a groundbreaking opportunity for audiences to be exposed to ideas by way of a medium not normally known for its intellectual vigor. Portrayed by actors, panelists engage in stimulating round-table discussions that were... Read more

Is Paris Burning?

By: Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 15 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

“Is Paris burning?” is the question Hitler asked over and over as the French Second and American Fourth Divisions battered their way into the city.Few moments in history are as stirring as the Allied liberation of Paris, yet few people are aware of how narrowly—and how miraculously—the city escaped Hitler’s secret plan to reduce it to ashes. Is... Read more

O Jerusalem!

By: Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 23 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

At the center of this massive and brilliant book is the most universal of man's cities: Jerusalem, the mystic heart of three great religions, condemned to pay for the passions it inspires by being, through forty centuries, the most bitterly disputed site in the world.Collins and Lapierre's story is the fruit of five years of intensive research... Read more

Fortune's Favorite - Abridged

By: Colleen McCullough

Narrated by: Michael York

Length: 5 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Return to Ancient Rome - where politics, ambition, and greed collide in the fortunes of two fiercely powerful men: Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the great general who returns from exile to be installed as dictator, and then stuns Rome with his startling self-imposed retirement; and Pompey, the young scion of an enormously powerful rural family, who... Read more

Freedom at Midnight

By: Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 22 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

This is the story of the eclipse of the British Raj and the birth of an independent India and Pakistan. The fabled India of the maharajas, with their palaces and harems, their gold-caparisoned elephants and their glittering private armies—the India of Kipling’s legendary army, with its young British officers commanding troops of a dozen races,... Read more

Memo from Darryl F. Zanuck - Abridged

By: Rudy Behlmer

Narrated by: Richard D. Zanuck

Length: 3 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: Yes

One of Hollywood's biggest players for almost 50 years, Darryl F. Zanuck presided over Twentieth Century-Fox during the studio' s most glorious era— with stars like Marilyn Monroe and Henry Fonda, directors like John Ford and Elia Kazan, and classics like How Green Was My Valley, Gentleman' s Agreement, and... Read more

Harvey Penick's Little Red Book - Abridged

By: Harvey Penick

Narrated by: Jack Whitaker

Length: 1 hour 27 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The twentieth anniversary edition of this classic work—the bestselling golf instruction book of all time and hailed as “the golfer's equivalent of The Elements of Style” (The New York Times)—includes a new introduction by a prominent golfer, twenty new illustrations, and never-before-published materials from the Penick family archives.

The most... Read more

Truman - Abridged

By: David McCullough

Narrated by: David McCullough

Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Harry S. Truman, whose presidency included momentous events from the atomic bombing of Japan to the outbreak of the Cold War and the Korean War, told by America’s beloved and distinguished historian.

The life of Harry S. Truman is one of the greatest of American stories, filled with vivid... Read more

Crazy Wisdom - Abridged

By: Wes "Scoop" Nisker

Narrated by: Wes "Scoop" Nisker

Length: 2 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Take a wild and rickety ride through the philosophies of the East and West to discover madmen, dreamers, and unconventional wisdom seekers. Fun and irreverent, Crazy Wisdom synthesizes the most significant, compelling insights of the ages. Journey into the unorthodox teachings that have bubbled up through the words of such "crazy" visionaries as... Read more

Meeting of Minds

By: Steve Allen

Narrated by: Steve Allen

Length: 1 hour 56 minutes

Abridged: No

By “ assembling” some of the most fascinating figures in world history, Meeting of Minds provided a groundbreaking opportunity for audiences to be exposed to ideas by way of a medium not normally known for its intellectual vigor. Portrayed by actors, panelists engage in stimulating round-table discussions that were... Read more

A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus

By: David Adler

Narrated by: Linda Terheyden

Length: 11 minutes

Abridged: No

"Well-produced and appealing readalong...expressive narration and appropriate music and sound effects...Sure bet for story time or home." - Booklist Read more